‘1917’ Producer Brian Oliver on Bringing the Award-Winning Epic to the Big Screen

Sam Mendes’ World War I epic 1917 marks producer Brian Oliver’s third run at the Best Picture Oscar. Previous nominations stemmed from his involvement with Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Mel Gibson’s Heartbreak Ridge. That’s not to say the whole awards season is old hat for him. Every experience provided a different perspective on Hollywood filmmaking.

“The year that Black Swan came out, I felt like all the movies were being driven solely by an actor or actress,” Oliver explained. “Whereas this year, the directors are the stars. This is a real directors’ year with Sam, Marty, Quentin, Todd, and Bong. The directors are really being showcased right now.”

1917, famous for its pseudo one-take approach, tells the story of two World War I British soldiers tasked with carrying a vitally important message across enemy lines. Through its 2-hour running time, it illustrates most of the darkest horrors of war and its unmistakable impact on humanity and nature.

The film’s recent awards season trajectory shifted into high gear as it picked up Golden Globes for Best Drama and Best Director, the Directors Guild of America award and the Producers Guild’s Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award.

Fresh from his Producers Guild award and headed into the final stretch of Oscar voting, Oliver talked to Awards Daily about the experience of bringing the epic to the big screen. He also talks about the challenges of launching an awards campaign for the Elton John musical biopic Rocketman after releasing it early in the year.

Awards Daily: Congratulations on your Best Picture nomination for 1917 and your Producers Guild award! What brought you to this project? 

Brian Oliver: Interestingly enough, it was a spec script that Sam (Mendes) came up with the idea for and collaborated on with Krysty (Wilson-Cairns). When they were ready for the script to go out, it was managed by CAA, and they were very protective of it. We had to go over and sit in the offices at CAA and read it there. They didn’t want the script leaving the building. On the first day they were doing that, I went over and read the script and immediately called and said, “I think it’s amazing. We want to do it.”

Awards Daily: So, after your enthusiastic reception to the screenplay, how difficult was it to launch this project given that the war film is an older trope that we generally don’t see much of in modern cinema?

Brian Oliver: I think that, normally, if you went to the marketplace and said, “I’m going to do a World War I movie at $100 million+ with no real name actors in the lead role. Oh and I’m going to shoot it in one take,” that would be an impossible task. What separated this from that was, first of all, not only was it a great screenplay, but it also had a few horror-thriller elements to it as well as the right emotional elements. But the main thing that got this movie made was that you had the genius Sam Mendes directing and Roger Deakins and the whole production team. We did an analysis, and there was something like 88 Academy Awards nominations between the key crew. We felt there was something special there that made it more than a typical war movie.

Awards Daily: One of the things I love most about the film was that it wasn’t cast with just a name. It feels like the right actors were chosen for the roles. Was there ever a pressure to cast a “big name actor” in the lead roles?

Brian Oliver: No, not at all. I think at the time I read the script, Sam knew who he wanted. There was never a discussion about looking at anyone else. When I read the script, it kind of brought something to it to have the identity of the actors not take away from the events of the script. I felt like it served the movie’s purposes to have the right guys in the roles.

Awards Daily: There’s been a lot of recent conversation that Sam Mendes has reinvented the war film with 1917. What’s your take on that?

Brian Oliver: I don’t know that he explicitly reinvented the war movie because there has been other great war movies. I think what he did was make a movie where you don’t get caught up in the politics of the era. It’s really a movie about these two guys on a mission to save one guy’s brother. But yet, you still feel for these guys. You still see the horrors of war. It’s a very emotional, immersive experience. You feel like you’re a part of the movie.

Awards Daily: So, take me back to your read of the script at CAA. What went through your mind when you understood that this film was to be conceived as a one-take film?

Brian Oliver: Well, you’d have to be crazy to not think it would be hard to do, but it also felt very exciting. I think you could have made a great movie without the single take, but do I think it it would have been as good as 1917? No. I think its an historical achievement that’s never been done at this scale. I think we were all confident that Sam and Roger would deliver something we’d never seen.

Awards Daily: You mentioned this Oscar year being a “real directors’ year.” Do you prefer working with directors with really strong visions? 

Brian Oliver: As a company and as a producer, I’ve always been very director driven. I believe the director is the master of the movie. You obviously need a good screenplay, but we as a company believe in “director first.” We have to really believe that the director has the vision and talent. I will always bet on the director as the key to making a great film.

Awards Daily: You’ve also produced Rocketman which is a very good film and was anticipated to receive a stronger reception by the Academy. Looking back on the film, do you think it was released too close to Bohemian Rhapsody?

Brian Oliver: I don’t know if it was released too close to Bohemian Rhapsody as much as it was probably released too early in the year. In the world of movie making, people have short memories. Being released in May with the Academy Awards almost a year away, it’s really hard to stay at the top of people’s minds. I really feel that, if we’d been a fourth quarter release, it would have been a different story. Dexter (Fletcher) did an amazing job. Taron (Egerton, Golden Globe winner) was incredible. I believe the movie probably would have been nominated for more awards if we’d been released in the awards quarter. We went out in May at Cannes, and all of that was great. But it’s hard to survive that long in people’s minds.

Awards Daily: I remember there being plans for, at some point, a stage version of Elton John’s life. Was that project what would eventually become Rocketman? 

Brian Oliver: I think they were the same. At one point, they were talking about doing it simultaneously. Lee Hall, the screenwriter, is obviously a playwright. I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t see a stage production of it soon.

1917 is now playing in theaters nationwide.